Tinder CEO Says App Lost Product-Market Fit as Paying Users Decline

Spencer Rascoff, who became chief executive of Match Group in February 2025 and of Tinder in July, has acknowledged that the dating app «had lost product market fit with its users because it hadn’t innovated» and had «rested on its laurels for a long time.» His assessment came after Tinder’s paying user base fell 7% in 2024 while revenue grew just 1%, according to comments he made recently.

One of Rascoff’s first moves was to ask employees a deceptively simple question: what does success look like? He recalls receiving blank stares. Those who answered often pointed to quarterly profitability targets promised to Wall Street. Even designers, product managers, and software engineers measured their work against financial goals that offered little guidance for improving the dating experience. The disconnect exposed a fundamental management problem: Tinder’s mission is to help people form connections, yet the people building the product lacked a shared measure of whether they were delivering on that promise.

To close the gap, Rascoff introduced a companywide metric called «sparks,» which tracks conversations between matched users that reach at least six back-and-forth exchanges. Tinder’s analysis of millions of messages suggested that conversations hitting that threshold were more likely to develop into flirting and plans to meet in person. By focusing employees on sparks, Rascoff gave teams a measurable customer outcome to work toward, from improving matchmaking recommendations to helping users start better conversations.

He also pushed employees to consider the different needs of Tinder’s users through two personas: Abby the anxious romantic and Jasmine the joyful butterfly. That customer focus has helped inform a broader reinvention of the app, including double dates that make meeting strangers less intimidating, real-world events where users can discover activities and connect with fellow attendees, and AI-powered recommendations that learn more quickly from users’ preferences.

AI is also accelerating how quickly Tinder can introduce those features. Rascoff says the company is shipping 70% more code than a year earlier. An events product conceived in January launched in Los Angeles just eight weeks later, a process he estimates would previously have taken six to 12 months.

Rascoff says the changes are producing results, with matches up 14% year-over-year and more users reaching the spark threshold. Yet Tinder has struggled to translate that momentum into sustained business growth. In the second quarter, revenue declined 1% to roughly $457 million, its paying user base fell 5% to 8.5 million, and daily active users dropped 4%.

For Rascoff, the current challenge is turning a highly profitable but stagnant business into one that can grow again. The company’s flagship app spent more than a decade relying on the same swipe-left, swipe-right formula that made it famous, but it had struggled to keep pace with changing consumer expectations. The new focus on sparks and customer personas represents an attempt to rebuild a culture of innovation around measurable user outcomes rather than quarterly financial targets alone.

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Connor Quincy

Technology Reporter

Connor Quincy covers public affairs, politics, business, culture and daily news for Core Memo. The role focuses on verification, context, and clear explanations for readers.

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